puff,
I know what you are saying and on the surface it appears rediculous, but remember this. The role of First Officer on Regional turboprop operations has been traditionally filled by Pilots with thousands of hours experience and many years working in the industry. Over the years the industry has grown and so has the complexity of the operation. Now we have a situation where the supply of such pilots has all but dried up. One solution is to lower the requirements and take on less experienced people. The problem is that with the growth of regional services, the position of Regional airline pilot has become more akin in job description to a Domestic airline pilot rather than what was essentially a scheduled charter driver.
Because the Training and Checking process at REX and other large Regionals now more closely resemble that of the larger airlines, we are now seeing a much higher failure rate amongst candidates than previously was the case. Whilst these candidates are of a much lower level of experience to years gone by, they still posess significantly more experience than a bare CPL with MER! I would suggest this is the reason they are not looking closely at bare CPL'S.
Cadets are a different matter, according to the magicians who are the architects of these schemes. They believe the cadet will be better able to adapt to the role because they have been trained as an airline pilot from the word go. Whether or not this will bear fruit in REX's case still remains to be seen.
So I guess what I am trying to say is, we all know there is shortage, and REX are desperate for pilots, but history has shown that one must first learn to walk before attempting to run!
P.S. Sorry for the thread drift!